Generation it has slipped away A BTVSTribe story
by In Smithereens
Summary: AU Buffy, not so AU The Tribe set in s1, around episode 30 ... What if Dawn had been sent to live in NZ after The Gift, only months before the virus became uncontrollable? Dawn/Lex Rated M because there will probably be mature content to come.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: So, I'm almost as obsessed with The Tribe as I am with BTVS... So, yeah. This is set in S1 of the Tribe and in AU BTVS... Basically if Buffy had died (properly) after The Gift and Dawn was sent to live with her dad in NZ, only months before the virus hit. There will be Dawn/Lex romance. Review with ideas, gripes, questions etc. :)  
A non-vague disclaimer: I own nothing. BTVS is owned by Joss Whedon (God) and The Tribe is owned by Raymond Thompson

Dawn walked through the city with a crossbow in her hands; she stared straight in front of her, impassive to the teens around her. She paused as the Locos' police car passed her and their new leader, Ebony passed her. Ebony looked her up and down, as if wondering weather to start a fight but when her eyes set on the purple B next to Dawn's right eye she turned away, telling the driver not to stop. It had been a year since the virus had hit and the city that she had only lived in for a few months in what they were calling 'the old times' was barely recognisable. For a fleeting moment she wondered what Sunnydale looked like now, wondered if any of the kids from her class had survived. She grimaced, imagining the moment when it had dawned on the kids that vampires existed… The city hadn't been badly hit, the kids had taken to killing any adult they saw and they far outnumbered the vampires. Dawn had started the rumour that the virus caused some adults to go feral and the aging process to become more pronounced on the foreheads. She had also told people that the bodies had to be destroyed. The city that had once smelt like burnt sugar, the sea and petrol fumes now stank of burnt corpses, the tribes had taken to setting up pyres near the outskirts of the city in part to scare outsiders as well as the practical. She carried on walking, passing the hotel getting closer to the mall, the one place that knew no one was staying. But before she was able to get inside she saw a vampire closing in on a girl.

Dawn sprung into action, running behind the vampire and plunging a stake into its back. It turned and she waited it to explode into ashes but it advanced on her, the girl turned around and, seeing the fight froze. Dawn motioned for her to move out of the way and the girl backed towards a man-hole cover. Satisfied that the girl was far enough away that she was safe for the moment Dawn turned towards the vampire, who, rather ineptly was trying to remove the stake from his back. She rolled her eyes and took another out of her bag. His eyes narrowed.

"Slayer?" He said, as if in a daze.

"The next best thing," she said sadly, aware of what he was. She staked him, and picked up both her stakes from the pile of ashes on the ground. She turned to the girl.

"How old are you?" She asked the girl, who, although skinny looked well-feed.

"Eleven," the girl replied in a small voice. Dawn frowned, wasn't anyone looking after her?

"I'm Dawn, what's your name?" She asked.

"Cloe."

"Who looks after you Cloe?" She asked slowly, trying to keep her voice sweet.

"Salene and Amber. And sometimes Zandra. And Lex if someone bad comes."

"Where are they now?"

"I'm not supposed to say." The girl replied, unsure.

"Hey, I'm one of the good guys, remember? I got rid of the vamp- scary man." Dawn tried to reason. "I just want to get you home safe." The girl looked her up and down and her eyes fixed on the crossbow Dawn had strapped to her back. She looked around as if wondering whether she could run away but Dawn held out her hand. "It's okay… I'm not going to hurt you." The girl thought about this for a moment but took Dawn's hand.

"They're at the Mall, that's where we live." The girl said, looking up at her. She lead her to the man-hole cover. Cloe let go of her hand and opened it, looking down into the sewers before she climbed down the ladder. Dawn sighed, shoved the stakes back into her bag and followed her. They made through the sewers before coming to another ladder. They then climbed up it and into the light of the mall. Dawn stopped, wondering how many kids would be there. Would they trust her? But Cloe held out her hand and Dawn took it, bracing herself for other people.

They had barely taken a step when someone had grabbed Cloe from Dawn. She started to turn around but felt a staff against the back of her neck. One move and they could paralyze her, though they probably didn't know it. She felt them take the bag off her back. They threw it forwards and a boy caught it, smiling.

"Who are you working for?" The boy asked, opening her bag and raising his eyebrows at the contents. Dawn didn't answer, instead tried to plan her next move.

"Okay then, put her in the cave Bray." He said. The second the staff shifted Dawn turned around knocking it out of her captor's hands and pulled a knife out of her boot. She looked around the mall and saw that her captors were human, she couldn't fight them. She dropped the knife and raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.

"I'm Dawn. I just wanted to make sure that Cloe was safe." She said, making sure her voice carried around the building. The boy who she had taken to be the leader looked over at Cloe who was now standing next to a girl with magenta hair, holding her hand. Cloe nodded.

"She killed the scary man." The girls voice came out hoarse.

The leader motioned to the other boys to step away from Dawn and looked her up and down, smiling.

"I'm Lex."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Review please, and give ideas- I'm kinda open to anything happening. Sorry but the whole Salene bulimia arc bugged me (as a diagnosed bulimic) so I'm really not going to take it very seriously.  
A not so vague disclaimer: I own nothing... and have no money so suing me would be a waste of time :)

"I don't want any trouble, if you'll just give me my bag back I'll leave." Dawn said evenly. The boy, Lex, laughed.

"How do we know that you won't just come back later with your tribe?" He asked, looking her straight in the eye. Dawn smiled.

"If I wanted to hurt you it would have happened by then… I'm not part of a tribe." She gestured to her knife on the floor. "I could have used that but I didn't."

The boy laughed again.

"Or maybe you realized that you were outnumbered… That you were just one skinny girl against all of us." Dawn rolled her eyes.

"You've seen what's in my bag; would I have all of that if I didn't know how to use it?"

"Yeah, I have seen in your bag. You've got a hell of a lot of weapons but no food."

"I can get what I need for the day. I don't live anywhere for more than a couple of days so I don't see the point in having a store of food. Are you going to give back the bag now?" Dawn said through gritted teeth. Lex looked around at the others and threw her the bag, she caught it and another boy held out her crossbow. She was about to leave when one of the girls spoke.

"Stay for dinner Dawn, you can tell us about what was attacking Cloe." The girl said to the obvious dismay of Lex. Dawn turned to her; the girl was standing at the foot of the stairs with her arm around another girl, who looked to be about Cloe's age. The older girl was Dawn's age and wore her blonde hair in twists around her head.

"Just don't let her out alone, I don't think that there's anything else around here to worry about." Dawn strapped the crossbow to her back. But the girl persisted.

"You said that you didn't have a home, and we've got food. Just tell us what's out there and stay the night." The other members, even Lex it seemed, agreed with her. Dawn sighed, her last meal had been stolen from the Demon Dogs and she had fought their guards to get it. It couldn't hurt to warn them.

"Okay, but I'm going in the morning." She walked towards the rest of the group and let out a small smile.

"I'm Amber," the girl said, smiling. The rest of the group introduced themselves as they mad their way to a dining area. It seemed that Dawn and Cloe had interrupted their meal, the plates were only half-full and the chairs had been hastily knocked over. There was crying coming from the kitchen and a girl with short purple hair and pale skin came out, rocking a baby with a bottle of milk in her hand.

"Brady's running out of baby milk." She said to the boy who had held a staff to Dawn's head. "I'm Trudy," the girl addressed Dawn. "I heard the whole thing from here." Then to the others she said, "I'm going to try to put Brady down. Hopefully I'll be back in a little while." She smiled at Dawn and left the room.

They sat down to eat and Dawn was given a plate of beans with sausages in tomato sauce. They ate in silence, all obviously hungry. When she had eaten all of the beans Dawn pushed her plate away from her.

"Does anyone want these? I know it's stupid but I'm veggie." She smiled. The girl across from her took the plate and ate them quickly; Dawn raised her eyebrows but smiled. Did any of the other kids notice what the girl was doing? Dawn noticed the light bags under her eyes and saw that her nailpolish had almost completely chipped off her right index and middle fingers, along with reddish marks on the knuckles. She wondered how long the girl had been doing it but was distracted by Lex loudly moving his chair over next to hers.

"I guess you'll all want to ask me questions." Dawn smiled weakly. Lex started, staring at her once again.

"What happened to the guy that attacked Cloe? Did you really kill him? Was he an adult?"

"I killed him, it was the only way. Have you heard about the mutations in the virus? The madness, the wrinkled foreheads?" She chose her words carefully. "He was already dying, but he was going to take other people down with him."

"Why should we believe you? Who are you really?" He asked.

"I'm Dawn, I told you."

"She's the Slayer," the boy with the staff added.

"Finally someone gets it. I'm the girl who knows how to control the mutants. That's why I'm not part of a tribe." She smiled; turning her head so that the B painted next to her right eye hit the light.

"So what, you go around the tribes and teach them how to control them, in exchange for food?" Lex asked.

"I tell them how to dispose of the bodies so that it's not contagious and yes, I get stuff in return."

"Why are you here anyway? You sound American." The blonde girl, Amber, asked.

"My dad moved out here, I was staying with him when the adults were evacuated."

"How do you know all of the virus stuff? How did you learn to fight?" One of the younger boys, asked.

"My sister was into all of that stuff, I grew up around it. The same with the fighting, my sister was very into the disciplines and I took karate classes until everything happened." She replied.

They carried on questioning her, asking her for information about the other tribes and beyond the city until Amber announced that it was time for the youngest kids, Cloe, another girl named Patsy and a silent boy named KC, to go to bed. The teenagers then carried the plates into the kitchen and began to make their way to their living quarters. The bulimic girl, Salene offered to share a room with Dawn and they went into the curtained-off area. Salene sat down on one of the two beds and changed getting ready for bed, Dawn followed suit and took of her boots and sweater but left on her dress and tights. Dawn tried to make small-talk with Salene but after getting a few non-committal answers the red-head had got up, mumbling excuses about needing fresh air and left Dawn alone. Dawn sighed and began to replace her chipped red nail polish. When her nails were drying a girl poked her head around the curtain. During their meal she had been silent, as if she was wondering whether to trust Dawn. She had pink and blue hair tied up in bunches and wore sparkly eye shadow. Dawn guessed that she was about thirteen, two years younger than her.

"Lex is playing cards with Ryan and Amber's being all mopey about Sasha… Are you doing anything?" The girl said, smiling and sitting on Dawn's bed.

"I was doing my nails and contemplating pulling a brush through my hair." Dawn smiled, eager to have some kind of girl to talk to. Most of her time was spent talking to leaders and convincing them not to try and attack her.

"Hey, I could do it for you. Or you could show me how you do that plait thing." The girl said, obviously thinking the same thing as Dawn. Dawn touched her hair self-consciously. She wore it plaited around the crown and loose in snarled waves down her back. She was one of the only girls she had met who didn't colour her hair.

"I'm not big with the whole girly thing… I keep meaning to dye it but I can't think of a colour that I'd really like." She said apologetically.

"But you're good with make-up. That 'B' is a lot more intricate than most symbols people attempt. You actually look like someone that people would take seriously. I, on the other hand, still look like a kid. Albeit a cutely dressed one." The girl, Zandra Dawn thought her name was, said.

"How about you give me a makeover? Try and make me look less like a weird sci-fi character and more like a fifteen year old." Dawn smiled.

The evening passed in a flurry of make-up, several attempts at new hairstyles and the ransacking of the vintage clothing boutique at the top of the mall.

For the first time since Buffy…. No… since her mum had died, Dawn was having fun.


End file.
